Some 10 Palestinians attack Jewish shepherd near West Bank town of Nablus, settlers say.

A day after Samaria clash, more violence in West Bank: A Jewish shepherd was attacked by Palestinian residents at Mount Bracha, Near Nablus, the settlers said Tuesday.

According to the settlers, the man was attacked by some 10 Palestinians.

Meanwhile, Palestinians at a nearby village say that settlers were harvesting olives at the site and hurled stones at local residents. An IDF force dispersed the individuals involved in the incident without using force.

The army said that both sides hurled stones at each other, and that one settler sustained light wounds.

The settlers said that two Jewish residents were hurt and added that a settlement security team was dispatched to the area and was also attacked by the Palestinians. Responding to Palestinian claims, the settlers said that the olive harvest season had not yet started, and that there are no olive trees at the site of the incident.

"It's the second straight day where Arab rioters attack and hurt Jewish settlers, adding insult to injury by coming up with baseless libel in order to smear us," regional council head Gershon Mesika told Ynet. "Security forces must address this situation soon."

On Monday, a Jewish shepherd was wounded after being attacked by Palestinians in the area, the settlers said. IDF forces called to the area were stoned by the Palestinians, forcing the troops to hurl a stun grenade to subdue the violence. However, the Palestinians claimed that seven settlers took positions on a hill overlooking the village while aiming their weapons at Palestinian homes.

IDF called to disperse brawl near village of Burin. Palestinians claim settlers were picking olives on their land; settlers say Palestinians wounded Jewish shepherd. IDF declares area restricted military zone.

Palestinians from the West Bank village of Burin and settlers from the settlement of Har Brakha, near Nablus, clashed Monday.

IDF soldiers dispatched to the scene dispersed the clash, declared the area a restricted military zone and restored order.

The reason for the clash has yet to be determined. The settlers claim that a resident of Givat Ronen the settlement adjacent to Har Bracha, was violently attacked by 10 Palestinians while tending his sheep inside the Jewish community's boundaries.

Troubled olive harvest

The settlers further claim that the assailants tried to drag the man back to Burin, but he managed to escape and get help.

IDF forces arriving at the scene were stoned and had to use a stun grenade to restore order.

The Palestinians, however, claim that the clash erupted after settlers were spotted picking olives from the village trees.

Palestinian evacuated for medical treatment

The Palestinian then contacted the Rabbis for Human Rights group, which in turn informed the District Coordination Office of the incident.

Moreover, according to the Palestinians, the soldiers who arrived at the scene had trouble evacuating the settlers.

The Palestinians further claimed that following the clash, seven armed settlers positioned themselves on a hilltop overlooking the village, guns drawn.

The IDF confirmed that a clash which included stoning erupted between settlers and Palestinians, and that troops were sent to the area and had declared it a restricted military zone.

NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Israeli settlers began harvesting Palestinian olives on Monday in the northern West Bank district of Qalqiliya and Nablus, a Palestinian Authority official said.

Ghassan Doughlas, who heads the PA file on northern settlement activity, said settlers brought sheets and ladders "as though they were the owners of the land" and started harvesting the olives off Palestinian land.

In Nablus, Doughlas said settlers from Yitzhar ascended on the Palestinian olive groves in the Burin village to harvest them, while in Qalqiliya, settlers from the illegal Ramad Gil'ad and Gil'ad outposts picked olives from the Palestinian villages of Jinsafut and Far'ata.

The official described the move as a "flagrant violation of Palestinian rights."

Meanwhile, a source in the Burin village said clashes broke out between settlers and villagers as locals threw stones to prevent settlers from harvesting Palestinian crops.

HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Several Israeli settlers uprooted approximately 100 grape trees in the Al-Buera village in the southern West Bank district of Hebron on Monday, owners of the grape plantation said.

The plantation belongs to Abdul Rahman Sharif Sultan, said Syfian Sultan, who estimated damages caused to reach thousands of dollars. He settlers vandalized six dunums worth of grape trees, some as old as 15 years.

Sultan accused settlers from the nearby Kiryat Arba settlement of the vandalism and said it was done to force Palestinians to leave their homes to expand the settlement.

Palestinian Authority Ministry of Agriculture director in Hebron and agronomist Bader Hawamda condemned the act of vandalism and said the ministry would provide all possible assistance to Sultan.

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Agriculture's anti-wall and settlement unit on Wednesday toured land in the Al-Khader village that was overturned by settlers.

Unit coordinator Awad Abu Suwiey said settlers bulldozed a 30-by-10-meter part of the plot and uprooted 30 grapevines and several almond trees.

Abu Suwiey added that residents from the illegal Elazar settlement built a wall continue overturning the land "annexing a large area to the settlement."

Landowner Hassan Marzuq Salah said he filed a complaint with Israeli police stationed in the Kefar Ezyon settlement, but it was rejected.

Salah said he and his family made several attempts to remove barbed wire but were deterred by Israeli forces, who he said offered him compensation in exchange for dropping the charges against the settlers.

Abu Suwiey, the wall and settlements unit coordinator, said the ministry would organize activities and a campaign to help Salah rebuild and rehabilitate his land.

Israeli settlers have attacked Palestinian olive groves in the West Bank cities of Nablus and Qalqilya, looting part of the farmers' harvest.

A Palestinian official in charge of the Israeli settlement file in northern West Bank said tens of Israelis from the nearby Yitzhar settlement clashed with Palestinian farmers on Tuesday, Qods news agency reported.

According to Ghassan Daghlas, the assailants then engaged in uprooting and breaking Palestinian olive trees and stole part of their crops.

Daghlas emphasized that in addition to attacks by settlers, Israeli army forces have also launched a campaign recently to destroy Palestinian gardens and olive stands in the West Bank.

The move inflicts further blows on the wrecked economy of the West Bank where the livelihood of most Palestinian families depends on agriculture and their olive groves, in particular.

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- An unidentified Palestinian in his thirties was killed and three others were injured on Wednesday morning after Israeli security guarding settlers in the flashpoint neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem opened fire at their car.

The security guards opened fire at the car at 5 a.m. as they drove through the Wad Hilwa area of Silwan, witnesses told the Wad Hilwa Information Center.

The witnesses identified one of the injured as Samer Sarhan, who is in critical condition following the shooting. Sarhan was transferred the Hadassah Hospital for treatment, the witnesses said.

Center director Mahmoud Qara'een said the body of the Palestinian killed in the incident was left for two hours before Israeli Border Guards transferred the corpse to an unknown location.

Israeli police and border guards heavily deployed in Silwan following the shooting, preventing residents from approaching the site of the incident.

A spokesman for Israel's National Police did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

Riots erupt after Silwan man shot to death

Jewish security guard opens fire at Palestinian after being pelted with stones in east Jerusalem village; 35-year-old Israeli moderately hurt after being stabbed in back during funeral procession; others injured from stones. Police storm Temple Mount as dozens of worshippers barricade themselves in al-Aqsa Mosque.

A Palestinian resident of east Jerusalem's Silwan neighborhood was shot dead by a Jewish security guard in the early hours of Friday morning. Two other Palestinians were reportedly injured in the incident, one of them seriously.

During the funeral procession for the victim, a 35-year-old Israeli was stabbed in the back near the Augusta Victoria Hospital. He was evacuated to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in moderate condition.

Police forces stormed the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem's Old City after stones were hurled at police officers.

Dozens of worshippers barricaded themselves inside the al-Aqsa Mosque as police forces encircled the mosque. Eight people were arrested on suspicion of rioting – five on the Temple Mount and the rest near the Old City.

The guard who shot the Palestinian was arrested and taken in for questioning. He was later released from custody under limiting conditions after posting bail.

According to reports, the security guard was pelted with stones, and, fearing for his life, he pulled out his personal handgun and opened fire, killing 32-year-old Samar Sarchan, who had a criminal record..

A screwdriver and knife were found on the victim's body.

According to the Wadi Hilwa Information Center in Silwan, the Jewish security guard reenacted the shooting "in three different places, which verifies that he had chased after the Palestinian before killing him."

Israel Police confirmed that the guard had reenacted the incident.

Following the incident, local youngsters began rioting in the streets. Police responded by firing stun grenades and tear gas.

One police officer was lightly injured from a stone that was thrown at him by locals.

"There are a lot of people here, also many police officers; people are angry because of the killings," a Silwan resident said. "This is the first time a security guard kills someone, and it will not pass quietly. The injured man has a large family."

A left-wing activist who was at the site told Ynet, "The entire neighborhood is outside. There are hundreds of people here. Young Arabs are throwing stones and police officers are firing tear gas and rubber bullets."

Eyewitnesses said dozens of hooded Arab youngsters burned tires and threw Molotov cocktails at security forces. Some of them were throwing stones and firecrackers at the homes of local Jews.

Palestinians reported that some residents were hurt after breathing tear gas.

Later, Palestinians continued to riot during the funeral procession for Sarchan.

During the march, which reached the Muslim cemetery located near the Temple Mount, Palestinians threw stones at passing cars and police. Some officers and passersby were injured.

Some 1,000 people participated in the procession, during which a police vehicle was torched near the Old City's Dung Gate. There were no reports of injury in that incident.

Stones were also thrown at two Israeli vehicles near the Augusta Victoria Hospital. Three Israelis were lightly injured and were rescued by police and Border Guard officers. Rioters overturned the abandoned vehicles.

An eyewitness told Ynet, "We were near Dung Gate when the funeral procession left Silwan. Suddenly we saw hundreds of Arabs running towards us, some of them masked. They threw stones at a group of 20 soldiers who had barricaded themselves in one of the Jewish homes. The soldiers couldn't react or leave the house. Then they headed towards Dung Gate.

"They hurled stones at four buses, a Border Guard vehicle and private vehicles. A number of people were wounded. Border Guard officers eventually drove the stone-throwers back to Silwan," he said.

'Security guards can't deal with riots'

Ofer Rosenman, the owner of the company employing the security guard, criticized the police, claiming that the guards lacked the tools required to deal with disturbances.

Rosenman recounted the incident which took place in the neighborhood. 'Between 4-4:30 am, a car used for transporting security guards into the City of David was making its way to a gas station in Silwan. At some point, the guy ran into an improvised stone barrier. He tried to drive back but was stopped by another barrier which included stones and large rocks.

"At this stage, dozens of Palestinians approached his car. The guard feared for his life and was afraid of being kidnapped. At first he fired in the air, and after the rioters moved towards him, he shot a single bullet and hit one of them.

"A shift leader and another security guard arrived in the area and tried to resuscitate the young Palestinian who was hurt, but were unsuccessful." Cold arms were found on the body.

Rosenman criticized the police, who he said were "showing helplessness and failing to be present in sensitive areas. The guards asked for permission to use crowd dispersal means, but were turned down, so the only weapon left is a pistol. The guys are attacked constantly. The security guards' job is to safeguard the residents' lives and property. They should not have to deal with disturbances."

Silwan is home to about 70 Jewish families who live amid 50,000 Palestinians. Already tense relations have worsened since the city government announced an economic development plan early this year that would demolish dozens of Palestinian homes.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, an Israeli advocacy group, recently wrote in a report that Israeli security firms act like a private police force for Silwan's Jewish residents. It said the firms often receive government funding and frequently use threats and violence against Arab residents, while police are reluctant to intervene.

Leaders of Jewish communities in West Bank say only a few hundred housing units will be built in months after moratorium expires; 'law of supply and demand also apply to settlements,' they say.

The settler leadership in the West Bank said that initially only a few hundred housing units will be built once the construction moratorium expires on September 26, Ynet reported Tuesday night.

One leader said the "damage" caused by the freeze will be mitigated only in the long term. "Estimates by left-wing organizations' saying the construction of about 2,000 housing units will be approved if the freeze ends entirely are fairly accurate, but it won't happen immediately. This process will take some time," he said.

"The coming months will see the construction of only a few hundred housing units."

Yesha Council Chairman Danny Dayan told Ynet that most of the construction will take place in the large settlements, such as Ariel, Efrat and Kiryat Arba.

Settler leaders say once local authorities are given the green light to issue building permits, construction will return to its normal pace of about 2,000 to 3,000 housing units a year. However, one of them added, "the law of supply and demand apply to the settlements as well."

Dayan said he hopes the Israeli government will implement the decision to resume construction throughout the West Bank.

"Theoretically, there may be a decision to continue the moratorium, but the political reality won't allow it," he said.

Moments ago settlers were firing live ammunition from the settlements at the funeral procession of one of the martyrs killed this morning by the private settler security guards here in Silwan. As a result clashes have broken out between Palestinians and armed Israeli military forces, empty Israeli buses have also been stoned. On the way to the cemetary an Israeli Police jeep was burnt, an Israeli Army jeep attacked and several Israeli cars destroyed.

The situation is very tense, and there are reports of armed settlers physically attacking Palestinian civilians and by-standers immediately after the funeral parade had passed by.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Armed Israeli settlers escorted by troops killed Wednesday morning one Palestinian young man and wounded many others in clashes that erupted in the Arab neighborhood of Silwan.

Local sources affirmed that the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) did not allow paramedics to evacuate the wounded young man and left him bleed for two hours until he died.

Member of Silwan committee Fakhri Abu Diyab said that the IOF troops also arrested two other young men who were seriously wounded by the settlers.

He noted that the provocative acts of the armed settlers triggered the clashes with the residents of Silwan.

The IOF troops intensified their presence in Silwan and closed all streets and roads leading to it.

Al-Jazeera satellite channel reported that one Palestinian was killed and five others were wounded during the clashes.

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Officials in Israel confirmed reports Wednesday that two Palestinians were killed after an Israeli settler guard opened fire in a flashpoint neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem.

Officials at the Abu Kabeir forensic center said their teams received two corpses, but they have yet to identify the second Palestinian killed in the shooting in Silwan.

Shortly after the incident, Israeli forces clashed with Palestinian residents who were demonstrating against the killing of Samer Sarhan, 28, and the injury of three others earlier Wednesday morning.

Director of the Wad Hilwa Information Center Jawwad Siyam said an Israeli security guard opened fire at the four men, who were driving through the area at 5 a.m., chasing them down an alley. One of the injured remains in critical condition, the director said.

Israel National Police spokeswoman Loba Samri told reporters at the scene that Sarhan was known for participating in protests and demonstrators, offering a different account of the events leading to his death.

Samri said the guard had crashed his car in the area after which the four began pelting him with stones near one of the local settlers' homes. The guard then opened fire, killing one, she said.

She added that Sarhan's body was transferred to the Abu Kabeir forensic medicine center and that the guard was detained for questioning.

Earlier, a Wad Hilwa official said Israeli forces at the scene prevented the transfer of Sarhan's body out of the area for two hours.

22 sept 2010

PLO: Settlers used to carry out Israeli attacks

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Israel is enacting its ethnic cleansing policy on Jerusalem through the work of settlers as leaders talk peace, Head of Jerusalem affairs at the PLO Ahmad Qrei'a said Wednesday.

Earlier in the day two men were killed and two others wounded by a settler guard in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem.

Israel must not be able to use settlers to enact its policy, the official said in a statement, expressing outrage over the deaths coming as officials continue peace talks in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

"The slaying of Palestinian citizens by settler' guards employed and protected by the Israeli occupation army is evidence that this government uses extremists to blackmail," Qrei'a said.

The official continued, saying he believed that the ploy behind the incident would be to dissuade Palestinians from insisting on the settlement freeze for fear of settler violence. the Palestinians and impose state terror on negotiations to force the Palestinian side to stop demanding settlement freeze."

Israel wants Jerusalem as a Jewish city, the Palestinians in Silwan, Sheikh Jarrah, Ras Al-Amoud and the Islamic neighborhood at the old city will fear to leave their homes if attacks continue, he said.

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Agriculture's anti-wall and settlement unit on Wednesday toured land in the Al-Khader village that was overturned by settlers.

Unit coordinator Awad Abu Suwiey said settlers bulldozed a 30-by-10-meter part of the plot and uprooted 30 grapevines and several almond trees.

Abu Suwiey added that residents from the illegal Elazar settlement built a wall continue overturning the land "annexing a large area to the settlement."

Landowner Hassan Marzuq Salah said he filed a complaint with Israeli police stationed in the Kefar Ezyon settlement, but it was rejected.

Salah said he and his family made several attempts to remove barbed wire but were deterred by Israeli forces, who he said offered him compensation in exchange for dropping the charges against the settlers.

Abu Suwiey, the wall and settlements unit coordinator, said the ministry would organize activities and a campaign to help Salah rebuild and rehabilitate his land.

Guard who shot east Jerusalem resident to death released from custody under limiting conditions following questioning. According to Jerusalem District Police commander, he opened fire after encountering 'a dangerous ambush.' Massive security forces deployed in capital to prevent escalation.

Jerusalem District Police Commander Aharon Franco on Wednesday evening backed an Israeli security guard who shot Silwan resident Samar Sarchan to death early Wednesday in the east Jerusalem village.

Franco told reporters that "according to an initial investigation, the guard encountered a preplanned ambush which put his life in danger, prompting him to open fire."

The guard was released from custody under limiting conditions after being questioned.

Franco reviewed the violent incidents which followed the killing. "Throughout the day, the police attempted to ease the tensions and contacted Silwan's dignitaries and the killed man's family. As part of these efforts, the police approved a funeral process, which left from Silwan towards the Muslim cemetery near the Temple Mount."

Some 1,000 Palestinians attended the funeral, which sparked riots in the capital.

Bus pelted with stones during riots (Photo: Reuters)

According to the district commander, several Palestinians "took advantage of the police's permission to hold a funeral procession and began rioting. During the disturbances, four buses were badly damaged, as were private vehicles.

"At a later stage," Franco continued, "young Palestinians began hurling stones from the Temple Mount, forcing police forces to enter the Mount."

Meanwhile, massive police forces have been deployed in east Jerusalem and the Old City area in a bid to prevent an escalation. According to Franco, "We are continuing our dialogue with the killed man's family."

Despite reports of a young Israeli stabbed near Augusta Victoria Hospital, Franco stated that "according to a police investigation, this report is false and the young man was simply injured during the disturbances."

The Palestinian Authority on Wednesday harshly condemned the killing of Samar Sarchan, who was shot to death by a security guard in the east Jerusalem village of Silwan.

The incident sparked riots in the village, which spread to the Temple Mount during Sarchan's funeral procession.

Ghassan al-Khatib, director of the Palestinian Government Media Center, said the incident was "a crime added to the series crimes of the occupation on Palestinian lands, particularly in east Jerusalem, which are harming both the people and the land."

He accused the Israeli prime minister of being responsible for the incident. "These are the trust wrecking moves of (Benjamin) Netanyahu, who is directly responsible to the crime in the Silwan neighborhood, and to all the crimes of the occupation regime."

Khatib added that "the person who sends armed settlers to settle in the heart of a Palestinian neighborhood, daily provoking the unarmed Palestinians, is paving the way for these crimes. He stressed that "these criminal acts will not prevent the Palestinian people from holding on to their land and rights, and will only increase their determination to realize their freedom and independence."

The Palestinian government demanded that Israel allow the transfer of Silwan residents injured in the clashes to hospitals. "The government demands that the detainees be released and evacuated from the village," Khatib said.

Meanwhile, the father of the killed Palestinian did not blame the Israeli government for his son's death. "I woke up at 4 am to pray and my son went to work. Then, at 7 am, we heard that he was dead. It's all in God's hands," he told Ynet.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has accused Israel of persistent violations in Palestinian territories despite the ongoing direct talks between Ramallah and Tel Aviv.

"Israeli settlers' violations in Palestinian territories have not stopped even for a single day," PA official Ghassan Daghlas said in an interview with the state-funded BBC Arabic television on Tuesday.

Ghassan, who monitors Israel's settlement activities in the northern West Bank, further explained how Israeli settlers destroy Palestinian irrigation systems, attack farmers, vandalize their properties and ransack their harvest.

Israeli leaders mean to expand settlement construction and mount restrictions imposed on Palestinians to wear out their patience and force them to leave, he added.

The remarks come a few days after Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman insisted that the settlement expansion projects will resume in the West Bank as soon as Tel Aviv's partial freeze expires on September 26.

The 10-month moratorium announced in November 2009 nears its expiry while Israeli settlement authorities never halted construction work in al-Quds (Jerusalem) and also allowed for the building of so-called community centers across the West Bank.

The PA has repeatedly threatened to quit the ongoing direct talks if Israel refuses to renew the moratorium -- a call echoed by the international community.

The negotiations have raised serious disputes among the Palestinians, the majority of whom condemned PA's participation in the talks as surrendering to Israeli and US pressures.

Palestinians also fear the US-sponsored talks would lead to further concessions in favor of the Israeli regime.

Israeli settlers have attacked Palestinian olive groves in the West Bank cities of Nablus and Qalqilya, looting part of the farmers' harvest.

A Palestinian official in charge of the Israeli settlement file in northern West Bank said tens of Israelis from the nearby Yitzhar settlement clashed with Palestinian farmers on Tuesday, Qods news agency reported.

According to Ghassan Daghlas, the assailants then engaged in uprooting and breaking Palestinian olive trees and stole part of their crops.

Daghlas emphasized that in addition to attacks by settlers, Israeli army forces have also launched a campaign recently to destroy Palestinian gardens and olive stands in the West Bank.

The move inflicts further blows on the wrecked economy of the West Bank where the livelihood of most Palestinian families depends on agriculture and their olive groves, in particular.

Hamas: Silwan events prove peace talks used as a cover for Israel's crimes

GAZA, - The Hamas Movement stated that what is happening in Silwan neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem reflects that Israel maliciously uses its talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA) to cover its intended crimes and violence against the Palestinian people.

In a press release on Wednesday, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the Silwan events that claimed the life of a Palestinian and led to the injury of many others took place simultaneously with similar attacks waged by settlers on Palestinian villagers and their farms in Al-Khalil district.

All these violations as well as recent Israeli threats to take military action against Gaza prove that Israel really takes advantage of its revived peace negotiations with the PA in order to appear before the world as dovish, spokesman Barhoum added.

The spokesman urged the Arab countries to immediately revoke the cover it gave to the PA for its direct talks with Israelis and called on de facto president Mahmoud Abbas to stop his peace meetings with the occupation and let go of the Palestinian resistance in the West Bank to defend its people.

Local sources in Silwan reported that a young Palestinian man was killed by Israeli settlers and dozens of Silwan young men were subsequently injured in the confrontations with IOF troops, especially after a large number of Israeli troops were deployed in the area to quell angry Palestinian protests at the murder of the young man.

Clashes are still taking place between the Palestinians and Israeli troops, according to media reports.

Palestinian officials say the protests started after an Israeli guard shot and killed a 32-year old Palestinian during clashes between Israeli settlers and Palestinians in the Silwan neighborhood on Wednesday.

The killing sparked protests in the area in which at least ten Palestinians were wounded.

Israeli riot police used rubber bullet and tear gas to disperse protesters and chased off those who sought refuge at al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third-holiest shrine.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or further confrontations.

Despite the resumption of direct Israeli-Palestinian talks, the Palestinian Authority says Israeli settlers have not stopped attacking Palestinians in occupied territories for even a single day.

Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official in charge of monitoring settler activity in the northern, occupied West Bank, says Israeli settlers attack Palestinians and their properties on a daily basis. He says the attacks are premeditated and carefully planned.

Other reports say Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farms in the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday and took away part of their olive crop.

NAZARETH, (PIC)-- A Jewish settler was released on bail Wednesday after killing a Palestinian man in the Silwan district of Jerusalem, as tensions rise in Jerusalem in wake of the shooting.

The settler fired several shots at Samer Sarhan, 32, and other youths for allegedly throwing stones at him. Sarhan died after he bled for two hours and police stopped an ambulance from saving him. Others were wounded in the shooting.

Violent clashes re-erupted Wednesday between outraged Palestinian youths and armed settlers in several neighborhoods of the Silwan district in wake of Sarhan's killing.

Local residents said Palestinian youths hurled stones and Molotov cocktails at settlement outposts in Silwan.

A large force of Israeli occupation police arrived at the scene and closed off a number of entrances to the district and fired tear gas at rioters. An Israeli settler was stabbed in the clashes.

Israeli radio reported that three Molotov cocktails were thrown at Israeli soldiers and four at a Jewish institution on the Zaytoun mountain. No injuries or damages were reported.

Meanwhile in Gaza, the Islamic Jihad movement said that recent developments in Jerusalem are compelling evidence that the current peace talks between the PA and Israel provide a conducive climate for Israeli plans to crack down on the Palestinians.

The group said in a statement Wednesday that settler attacks have shown a marked increase after the resumption of direct negotiations between the two sides, in light of security coordination between the PA security militias and Israel.

For his part, Palestinian MP Dr. Ahmed Abu Halabiya said that Abbas remaining in negotiations in light of the vicious attacks against the people of Jerusalem is clear evidence that the PA has been conspiring with Israel.

What's happening in Jerusalem is part of an Israeli plan aimed at judaizing the city and its districts and establishing the alleged City of David. Abu Halabiya said in a statement on Wednesday.

Palestinian religious affairs minister Dr. Abu Sha'ar denounced Arab and international silence against Israel's practices against Palestinians in Jerusalem, at the same time calling on religious leaders to mobilize a public uprising in protest of Israel's arrogance.

In a statement he gave Wednesday, Abu Sha'ar pointed the finger at Israel, Israeli settlers, and extremist Jewish groups for the killing of a Jerusalem man whose life was taken in the blink of an eye for defending a national Islamic cause in face of judaization.

NABLUS, (PIC)-- Zionist settlers added three prefabricated cement rooms to a number of "caravans" they had previously installed on the Jabal Hazem area of Deir Hatab village, east of Nablus city, on Wednesday.

Abed Hussein, the chairman of the village's municipal council, said in a press release that settlers were planning to establish a new settlement outpost in the area then confiscate surrounding lands.

He noted that the new aggression coincides with the beginning of the olive harvesting season in a bid to prevent farmers from reaching their olive fields.

Hussein recalled that the Israeli army had confiscated more than 500 dunums of the village lands in the past years and the settles have exploited them to plant wheat and barley while blocking their owners from reaching them.

Outpost homes planned using cheap, environmentally friendly methods that enable building a house in two months or less for less than NIS 200,000.

As settlers prepare to resume construction in full force on Monday, in an effort to preempt a possible last-minute extension of the settlement freeze, the star of the day is "light construction" - cheap, environmentally friendly methods that enable building a house in two months or less.

Monday is expected to be a big day for contractors, after nine months of no work. There are an estimated 2,000-2,200 housing units in the territories that have all the necessary approvals in order to begin construction.

In April, Yedidiya and Hadassah Spitz began building a 100-square-meter home in Amona to house their growing family. Several days after construction began, the High Court of Justice discussed razing Amona again in the wake of a petition filed by the human rights group Yesh Din.

Supreme Court Dorit Beinisch asked a state representative, "What are you doing with the new home? This is supposed to be one of your priorities," meaning it was due to be razed.

The state representative said that a warrant ordering the home to be razed had been issued, but it was already too late: The home was finished less than a month after construction began.

The Spitz family, like many, built their home with light construction methods, meaning light materials. This new method of "instant" construction is catching on, and also helps bypass the political restrictions and the inspectors

This method produces homes somewhere between the permanence of stone and mortar, and the temporariness of prefabs. In recent years the Civil Administration in the territories has blocked the entrance of prefabricated homes into the West Bank, making it impossible for settlers to erect them in many locations.

Mobile homes are good for only a few years - they tend to be hot, and are too small for large families. Enlarging mobile homes means expensive and complicated additions.

As an alternative, for NIS 200,000, light construction can be used to set up a nice, stable, long-lasting home. In less than a week, when the building hiatus in the territories comes to an end, many such homes are expected to rise in the West Bank.

On average, a light-construction home takes two months to complete.

"There are many different types of light construction," says a contractor who has built several such homes in the territories. "In three days I can finish the frame and then the rest depends on the client. The construction could be wood or steel, and covered with wood or stone. Contrary to what people may think, it is not warmer than a regular home. It can also be constructed from insulated materials."

Yigal Brandt, 29, lives in Havat Yair in Samaria, with his wife Michal and their children. Their home was built using light-construction techniques.

"Havat Yair is a community with 33 families. It has 13 permanent homes and a synagogue. This year they opened a daycare center," he says.

"We were the first in light construction three years ago. We did it because we wanted quick, quality and inexpensive construction. We built a fairly small home of four rooms and 80 square meters. It cost us about NIS 2,000 per square meter, built entirely by Jews. In less than two months we had a real home." Brandt says.

'Skirting the law'

Dror Etkes, who follows settlement construction for Peace Now, says this is a way of circumventing the ruling.

"The instant construction of homes in settlements is the main tool the settlers have developed in recent years in order to build and occupy homes before the Supreme Court has a chance to intervene and prevent people from moving in against the law," he says. "Their assumption is that the Supreme Court will hesitate to order the evacuation of homes, even if everyone knows the home was built in a way to evade the rule of law."

Settlers get ready for celebrations Sunday as building resumes, promise to start constructing 2,066 housing units halted since November.

There are growing signs that the Palestinians will not follow through on their pledge to pull out of direct talks with Israel once the moratorium on new settlement construction expires this Sunday.

Settlers have already planned a rally for Sunday, to celebrate the end of the 10- month freeze, and have promised to resume construction immediately on 2,066 housing units that have been halted since November.

On Thursday, a Palestinian Authority official in Ramallah indicated that the Palestinians would continue to talk even if the construction in the settlements is resumed.

Still, from the podium at the UN General Assembly in New York, US President Barack Obama called on Israel to continue the freeze.

We believe that the moratorium should be extended. We also believe that talks should press on until completed, Obama said.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas stopped short of repeating his threat to pull out of the talks with Israel if the freeze is not extended.

Abbas was quoted by the PA's official Wafa news agency as saying that he was ready to reach a just and comprehensive agreement.

Government sources said the US was pushing for a creative compromise between the position set forth by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who has insisted that he must keep his word to let the moratorium end as scheduled, and that of Abbas, who has several times threatened that resumed building would scuttle the direct negotiations, which resumed earlier this month after they were halted in December 2008.

According to the sources, the US is looking for a compromise between the parties that does not involve a unilateral concession on Israel's part. Netanyahu is open to these efforts, but has not changed his plans to let the moratorium expire on Sunday.

The prime minister has spoken with leaders from around the world on this issue in recent days, including US Vice President Joseph Biden, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Greece Prime Minister George Papandreou.

Israel's special envoy Yitzhak Molho is in the US to help find a solution with the Obama administration.

According to government sources, Netanyahu told people in his bureau on Thursday night, I have made great efforts to achieve peace. We have taken the unprecedented gesture of suspending construction in Judea and Samaria for 10 months. Unfortunately, the Palestinians wasted the last 10 months and entered the talks just three weeks ago under pressure from the Americans.

If the Palestinians want peace, they will remain in the talks, in order to reach a framework agreement within a year, the prime minister continued. I hope the Palestinians will not turn their back on peace.

He added that construction in West Bank settlements had continued through the last 17 years of talks, including in the last year of prime minister Ehud Olmert's term in office.

Speaking to US Jewish leaders in New York on Tuesday, Abbas spoke of the difficult choice he needed to make with regard to the talks.

I cannot say I will leave the negotiations, but it's very difficult for me to resume talks if Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declares that he will continue his activity in the West Bank and Jerusalem, he said.

Abbas comments were distributed by the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, which hosted him at a closeddoor dinner with more than 50 American Jewish leaders in New York.

According to the transcript put out by the organization, Abbas expressed understanding for Israeli security concerns, and said that we accept the state of a demilitarized Palestine.

Demilitarization has been an fundamental demand for Netanyahu, who has indicated he wants to keep an Israeli presence along the eastern border to prevent the smuggling of rockets into the West Bank.

Abbas said at the dinner that he would allow Jewish soldiers to participate in a third-party security force within Palestinian territory.

Another contentious issue, the right of return of Palestinian refugees, was one that would have to be discussed, according to Abbas.

Let us say that we want to solve this problem. What's so important about this issue is that nobody can impose [their views] on the other while they are negotiating any issue.

When asked about Netanyahu's demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state, Abbas responded, If the Israeli people want to name themselves whatever they want, they are free to do soand said he would accept Israel's characterization as a Jewish state if the Knesset voted to designate the state as such.

His response didn't sooth everyone in the crowd, which included heads of major Jewish organization, various Jewish streams and prominent activists across the political spectrum.

Orthodox Union President Stephen Savitsky expressed dissatisfaction with Abbas's response to his request that he recognize the special historical ties that Jews have with Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, which Savitsky described as dismiss[ive].

President Abbas missed an opportunity this evening to make a key statement that would have created goodwill in the Jewish community, Savitsky said.

In his comments, Abbas also addressed the tragedy of the Holocaust, noting that he sent his ambassador in Poland to Auschwitz. It was a crime against humanity. And we want these crimes not to be repeated, he said, according to the transcript.

He continued by condemning anti-Semitism and statements by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calling for the destruction of Israel, though he took a more calibrated line on Palestinian incitement.

I didn't deny it. But I can say there is some incitement on the other side. It doesn't mean we have to exchange blame and accusations here and there, he said. We want to put an end to this incitement.

Abbas described Netanyahu as my partner in our quest for peace,a formulation Netanyahu has used for the Palestinian leader, and described the prime minister's recent statements about the Palestinian sovereignty as encouraging.

At a separate dinner with Jewish leaders in New York Tuesday night, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad also spoke about the importance of security.

Violence has to be dealt out of the equation permanently regardless of what happens in the peace process, he told some 65 business, community and religious leaders at a dinner arranged by The Israel Project.

He also talked about the need to end incitement against Israel, according to remarks distributed by the group.

He described his government was committed to an incitement- free environment. He noted that, incitement is a problem and we see it as such, and said, I don't think one can ever say that we have done everything that could possibly be done but we are trying, Fayyad said.

Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, head of The Israel Project, welcomed Fayyad's participation and defended their invitation to him.

Prime Minister Fayyad's spirit of hope was extremely welcome.

We know that some people will criticize us for falling for a Palestinian charm offensive. However, there is nothing offensive about charm, Mizrahi said in a statement distributed after the event. More Jews and Muslims, Israelis and Palestinians, should sit together over dinner and exchange ideas especially when it can help lead to security and peace.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Muslim-Christian Committee for Jerusalem has warned Thursday of the snowballing influence of the fanatic Israeli settlers and extremist rabbis in the occupied city of Jerusalem.

Dr. Hassan Khater, the secretary-general of the Committee, explained in press release he made over the matter, that the influence of extremist rabbis and the settlers in the occupied city of Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied Palestinian lands increased over the past few years, adding that persons like rabbi Ovada Yousef, the spiritual leader of the Shas party, and Shlomo Amar, the Chief Rabbi of Sephardic Jews played strong role in inciting hatred against Muslim and Christian Palestinians.

He added, the settlers actions against Palestinian citizens in occupied Palestine turned their daily life into hell, explaining that Christian clergymen and Muslim religious leaders are frequently harassed, insulted, and spat at by the fanatic Israelis while on their way to mosques and churches.

Khater also said that what was happening in Jerusalem, Al-Khalil, and Nablus in terms of settlers' attacks against Palestinians and their property as well as religious insults such as the tearing of copies of the Quran by settlers in Jerusalem are acts for which extremist rabbis are responsible because these acts are the result of their extremist religious edicts which are racist and full hatred and incitement against the Palestinian people.

He concluded by saying that all indications point to a scenario whereby the Israeli occupation government is on its way to handing over the control of the West Bank to the fanatic Jewish settlers and that the so called "settlers' state" has become more present on the ground than "The Palestinian State" which the international community has failed to achieve despite all promises.

SALFIT, (PIC)-- Zionist settlers from Revava settlement established on the land of Deir Estiya and Hares villages, northwest of Salfit district, seized tens of dunums of Deir Estiya village on Friday night.

The mayor of the village said on Saturday that the settlers installed 20 caravans on lands owned by two Palestinians near Revava.

He underlined that leveling land was still ongoing by those settlers to control more Palestinian lands in the area and to establish a new settlement outpost.

NABLUS (Ma'an) -- At least 20 caravans were installed on a hilltop outside the Revava settlement in the northern West Bank district of Salfit on Saturday, a day ahead of an anticipated end to the Israeli moratorium on settlement construction.

Head of the local council of Deir Istiya said settlers he believed were from Revava installed the mobile homes on a hill between his village and the nearby village of Haris overnight.

The structures, he said, had taken over dozens of dunums of agricultural lands in the Wadi Abu Ali area, a valley west of Deir Istiya on land owned by the families of Mansour Othman and Ahmad Ash Sheikh Abdul-Haqq.

The official said that platforms for the homes had been constructed using heavy equipment which continued to operate in the area.

A Civil Administration representative could not be reached for comment by phone regarding any action planned by Israeli forces to maintain the ban on settlement construction, while an Israeli military spokeswoman said she was unaware of any new settlement activity, adding that no settler activities for the Sukkot holiday had been coordinated with the military in advance.

According to Israeli group Peace Now, the Revava settlement witnessed the largest rate of growth during the partial moratorium period.

North of Salfit, in the Alon Moreh settlement east of Nablus, Palestinian official Ghassan Daghlas, who holds the settlements file for the PA in the northern district, said settlers had installed three caravan homes in the area.

In New York on Wednesday, US President Barack Obama called on the Israeli government to extend a 10-month partial freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank. The call was followed by a second from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and echoed in the UN General Assembly speech of Jordan's King Abdullah II.

According to Acting Assistant Secretary for the US State Department of Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, on Friday there was "a pretty intensive negotiation going on right now with the Israelis and Palestinians," on the settlement issue. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also met with President Mahmoud Abbas in the wake of the meetings.

"We know that time is short, this is an important issue," the spokesman said, but declined to give details on the progress of talks.

Palestinian negotiators have made clear that they will walk away from talks if settlement construction begins.

"I will say this once in front of you, if they want negotiations, then they will continue with settlement freeze otherwise the negotiations will stop, and we are sorry to waste the opportunity," Abbas told assembled Palestinian-Americans in New York on Thursday.

As Washington tries to broker moratorium compromise to prevent talks from collapsing, Likud MK Danny Danon says activists plan to lay the cornerstone of a new neighborhood in the Revava settlement.

Settlers have hauled construction equipment into a settlement deep inside the West Bank in preparation for the end of the 10-month construction moratorium scheduled to take place on Sunday.

Pro-settler MK Danny Danon (Likud) said Saturday that activists plan to lay the cornerstone of a new neighborhood in the Revava settlement Sunday, the last day of the slowdown.

"Building will begin there tomorrow afternoon and continue there on Monday," Danon said.

Nawaf Souf, the Palestinian deputy governor in the area, said settlers have moved construction equipment and 20 to 30 mobile homes into Revava in recent days. "The moment that the freeze is lifted, they will do the work openly," he said.

The end of the settlement slowdown presents the first major crisis in Mideast peace talks launched early this month in Washington.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who imposed the slowdown 10 months ago as a peace gesture, said he will not extend the restrictions. But the Palestinians say they will not continue negotiations if building resumes. The US is trying to broker a compromise.

Palestinian Authority President President Mahmoud Abbas and top Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Netanyahu's chief negotiator Yitzhak Molcho, were all in the US working on the issue. But Israeli and Palestinian officials said Saturday a deal was far from certain.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spent nearly a half-hour Friday meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as the Obama administration tried to prevent Israeli-Palestinian peace talks from collapsing.

After Clinton's 25-minute meeting with Abbas, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters that the US efforts to keep the talks alive were continuing.

In a furious, last-minute round of diplomacy, the Obama administration is pressing Israel to extend the settlement slowdown, while urging Abbas not to make good on his threat to leave the negotiations.

A number of Jewish settlers, working as security guards, opened fire on Saturday at night at a number of Palestinian homes in Al Sa’diyya neighborhood, in occupied East Jerusalem; no injuries were reported. A local woman was wounded in a separate attack.

The Israeli police arrived at the scene and closed the neighborhood preventing the residents from leaving their homes.

Furthermore, clashes were reported after a group of Palestinian youths took off to the streets and burnt tires. The Israeli Police claimed that a Molotov cocktail was also hurled at a settlers’ home in East Jerusalem.

In related news, a 35-year-old Palestinian woman was wounded while standing on her balcony in Al Esawiyya town in East Jerusalem.

The woman was hit in the head by a rubber-coated bullet fired by the army; her condition was described as mild-to-moderate. She was moved to Hadassah Israeli hospital in the city.

A Palestinian infant died on Friday after inhaling gas fired by the army in East Jerusalem. The 12-month-old infant was identified as Mohammad Abu Sneina.

TEL AVIV (Ma'an) -- Thousands gathered in the illegal Revava settlement Sunday to celebrate the end of the settlement freeze, Israeli press reported.

Settler leaders and MKs joined 2,500 settlers and supporters at the rally in the northern West Bank, bringing cement mixers and tractors, the Israeli daily Haaretz said. Settler groups released 2,000 balloons to represent the number of houses they intended to build on Palestinian land next week.

The celebration was held despite calls for restraint earlier Sunday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The prime minister reportedly asked cabinet ministers not to give media interviews so as to avoid further provocations at a fragile time in negotiations, the Israeli daily Haaretz said.

A partial 10-month ban on settlement expansion expired Sunday, and Israeli Prime Minister has so far refused to extend it despite pressure from the UN, the US and the EU.

The issue threatens to derail recently relaunched peace talks. President Mahmoud Abbas has insisted he will walk out of peace talks if settlement building resumes. The president told world leaders that Israel would have to chose between settlement activity and peace in an address to the UN General Assembly on Saturday.

Settler leaders hold meeting to discuss construction

Also on Sunday, settler leaders held a meeting with MK Zeev Elkin near his West Bank home in Kfar Eldad settlement to discuss resuming building, the Israeli news site Ynet reported. Elkin was joined by heads of regional settlement councils, the Yesha Council director and MK Arieh Eldad.

Leaders of the Yesha council, which represents illegal settlements, said they would be signing building permits from Sunday night, while MK Eldad said construction would resume after the Jewish holiday Sukkot, which ends on Wednesday night, Ynet reported.

Regional council head of Gush Etzion, Shaul Etzion, said "normal construction" would resume Monday.

MK Danny Danon, who attended the celebrations at Revava, said Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar had given permission for building to start Sunday, even though work is not permitted during Sukkot, Haaretz reported.

Israelis in some West Bank settlements have already resumed building. On Sunday, settlers laid the foundations for a new school in the illegal Rommanim outpost near Hebron. Settlers from Noqedim settlement in the Bethlehem district were seen installing mobile homes on land belonging to the Palestinian Khirbet Jub Ath-Theib.

On Saturday, prior to the freeze's expiry, settlers installed 20 caravans on a hilltop outside the Revava settlement in the northern West Bank.

Yisrael Katz: We are at end of freeze and can start building at midnight

Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) said, "We are at the end of the construction freeze, and, starting tonight at midnight, the settlers can start building their homes with legal building permits in hand."

"I would like to praise US President Barack Obama, who, in his last speech, recognized Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people. I am convinced that places like Hebron, Shilo, and Beit El are part of the Jewish people's heritage," said the minister during an event held at his house in a town north of Kiryat Malachi.

'Netanyahu has shown he can withstand pressure, but this will mean nothing in coming days,' Shomron Settlers' Committee head says hours before construction moratorium set to expire.

The various settler committees have drafted a plan consisting mainly of launching hunger strike by community leaders in case the construction moratorium in the West Bank is extended, Shomron Settlers' Committee head Benny Katzover told Ynet Sunday evening, just hours before the freeze is due to expire.

According to Katzover, the settlers are also preparing to take "several additional measures" should the government decide to extend the construction freeze to prevent the collapse of the direct peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

While many settlers celebrated the end of the 10-month moratorium, Katzover remained pessimistic. "I am very concerned. Even if (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu has shown that he can withstand the pressure, it will mean nothing in the coming days," he said.

Knesset Member Danny Danon (Likud) told Ynet he plans to fight any decision that will not lead to the resumption of construction in the West Bank's settlements.

"The PM knows he does not have a majority in government for the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital," he said.

Thousands of settlers rally in West Bank, counting down to end of construction freeze

Protesters attended rally in Revava with tractors, cement mixers and other equipment to broadcast to the world that construction in the territories is resuming, hours before freeze set to expire.

Thousands of people gathered in the West Bank settlement of Revava on Sunday afternoon to begin the countdown to the end of Israel's temporary construction freeze, which was set to expire at midnight.

Protesters attended the rally with tractors, cement mixers and other equipment to broadcast to the world that construction in the territories is resuming.

Members of Knesset and local council heads were among the demonstrators at the event.

Earlier Sunday morning, dozens of buses brought Likud activists to visit various settlements to hear about the damage caused by the construction hiatus, and to show support for the settlers.

At 3 P.M. there was be a ceremony marking the laying of the cornerstone of a new kindergarten in Kiryat Netafim.

MK Danny Danon (Likud) said that regardless of whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to extend the freeze, construction would resume on about 2,000 housing units in various settlements.

The Prime Minister's Office approached Danon, as well as settler council leaders, on Sunday asking them to avoid provocations and maintain a low profile in the media.

Netanyahu's bureau also asked cabinet ministers to refrain from giving interviews on the topic. The Prime Minister's Office explained that the request meant to prevent inflammation of the delicate ongoing contacts between Israel, the U.S. and the Palestinian Authority surrounding the expiration of the freeze order.

Palestinian negotiators, among them Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, have declared repeatedly that they would abandon recently re-launched direct peace talks if Israel were to resume construction on land they envision for a future state.

The White House on Sunday urged Israel and the Palestinians to remain at the negotiating table, even as the freeze was set to expire. David Axelrod, one of U.S. President Barack Obama's chief advisers, told ABC television's This Week that there's a rare and unparalleled opportunity for the two sides to reach an agreement.

"They're having serious discussions, they ought to keep on having those discussions, and we are very eager to see that happen," Axelrod said.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the BBC, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that there was a "50-50 chance" that Israel and the Palestinians would reach a compromise on the issue of construction in the settlements.

Barak said that there was a much better chance that the current peace process would succeed, despite the disagreement over the settlements. "We cannot afford to let this [peace] process, with historic potential, to be derailed by the fact that Israel doesn't have a way to stop this construction totally," he said.

American, Israeli and Palestinian officials were engaged in "intensive" efforts over the weekend to find a compromise on a settlement moratorium.

Netanyahu ordered senior negotiator Yitzhak Molcho, who is visiting the U.S., to extend his stay "specifically to deal with this issue", an Israeli official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Israeli media reports said Barak was also in the United States to help efforts to prevent the peace negotiations from collapsing just a month after they started.

Final status; two states living side by side in peace and security. From Khalid Amayreh in occupied Palestine.

As the Israeli government gave a green light to Jewish settler groups to resume settlement-expansion activities all over the West Bank, the Ramallah-based PLO leadership has effectively assured the Zionist regime and its guardian ally, the United states, that the renewed settlement construction will have no impact on the futile and pointless "peace talks" between Israel and the Palestinian Authority leadership (PA).

On Sunday, 26 September, the self-imposed and partial settlement-expansion freeze expired amid half-hearted American efforts to keep "the process going" by convincing the Zionist regime to extend the freeze moratorium for a few more months or even a few more weeks.

However, the Israeli government, mindful of the power of the Jewish lobby in the United States, has refused to extend the freeze even for "a single day," which illustrates the extent of indifference and defiance with which it views the so-called "peace talks" with the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, as many as 2500 Talmudic Jewish settlers attended a "celebratory rally" in the West Bank with tractors, cement mixers and other construction equipment.

The settlers, who included numerous members of the Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu's Likud party, released 2000 balloons, signifying the number of settler units settler groups said they were intending to start building this coming week.

"These are homes that have already received final permits," said Jewish supremacist lawmaker, Danny Danon, who helped organize the rally.

However, it was amply clear that Netanyahu was not objecting to renewed settlement construction per se, but was rather concerned about possible "public relations harm" that might result from more visible activities.

This is why, Netanyahu asked settler leaders as well as his cabinet ministers to refrain as much as possible from making interviews with the Press. In other words, the Israeli prime minister would want to see renewed settlement construction take place provided it is done as quietly or discretely as possible.

According to the Israeli press, the "prime minister's office explained that the request meant to prevent inflammation of the delicate ongoing contacts between Israel, and the Palestinian Authority surrounding the expiration of the freeze order."

The confused Abbas leadership

The PA leadership has repeatedly threatened to boycott talks with Israel if the later doesn't extend the settlement freeze moratorium.

PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas last week sought to assure Palestinians on this issue, saying that he wouldn't remain a single day in talks with Israel if the Zionist regime didn't extend the settlement freeze.

However, nearly 24 hours later, the same Abbas told American Jewish leaders that peace talks with Israel would continue even if settlement expansion continued."

The conspicuous contradictions in the Abbas leadership's stands have already created not a small amount of confusion in the occupied Palestinian territories as PA leaders in Ramallah kept issuing contradictory statements to the press with regard to the official Palestinian position concerning the issue of renewed settlement construction.

More to the point, Abbas was quoted as saying on 26 September that no matter what Israel did, the PA wouldn't resort to violence.

"We tried the intifada (uprising), and it caused us a lot of damage," the Fatah leader told the London-based Arabic language daily, al Hayat.

This is the same Abbas who told the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday, 25 September, that Israel must choose between peace and the continuation of settlements.

Predictably, Abbas hopes to receive a "green light" or at least a "yellow light" from the Arab league which he would use as an excuse to keep up the talks with Israel going irrespective of the settlement expansion.

This week, the PA has requested an urgent meeting of Arab foreign ministers to discuss the current peace talks with Israel and the Zionist regime's refusal to extent the settlement freeze moratorium.

The request came as PA officials, including Abbas, continued to make contradictory statements on the settlement issue.

Abbas said earlier he would go back to the Palestinian institutions and the Arab league for their opinion on the issues at hand.

It is widely believed that Abbas has already decided to keep up indulging in pointless talks with Israel even though he knows quite well that he will receive nothing from the Israelis no matter how long the talks will last.

The Leader of the Ramallah regime also realizes that the Arab world will endorse whatever steps he decides to take since the overall Arab commitment to the Palestinian cause has sagged to an all-time's nadir.

Finally, the so-called Palestinian institutions in Ramallah have lost any credibility or ability to influence Abbas, given the fact that the latter controls the money coffers of the PLO, which means that any criticism of or objection to Abbas would mean a certain loss of one's salary.

Several hours before end of construction freeze, settlers lay cornerstone for kindergarten in community of Kiryat Netafim. 'Freeze a racist decision. We'll continue building in spite of oppressors' objection,' says Shomron Regional Council head. Watch live broadcast from West Bank.

Jewish settlers on Sunday marked the end of the 10-month settlement construction moratorium by laying a cornerstone for a kindergarten in the community of Kiryat Netafim.

They brought trucks to the area, poured cement and broke into applause.

"This is not a day of celebration," stressed Shomron Regional Council head Gershon Mesika. "The freeze was born in sin, so it's natural that it would end fast. This is a racist decision which only forbids Jews to build their home in their country.

"We're laying a cornerstone to protest the injustice caused to 35 babies born here this year in Kiryat Netafim. Due to the whims of (Defense Minister) Ehud Barak, who has failed to sign the project outline, we cannot build kindergartens, children's homes and synagogues."

Yesha Council leaders convene in Gush Etzion, near plot where Coalition Chairman Zeev Elkin plans to build his home. Settlement construction freeze 'is a reality which is about to end tonight,' he says. 'Life in Judea and Samaria will return to normal.

Yesha Council leaders convened Sunday morning in the sukkah of Coalition Chairman Zeev Elkin (Likud), near his home in the settlement of Kfar Eldad in the Gush Etzion Regional Council, ahead of the end of the settlement building freeze.

On the backdrop of expectations among the settlers to resume construction despite the growing global pressure to extend the freeze, the Yesha leaders stated that they would be signing new building permits as of Sunday night.

The meeting was attended by heads of Judea and Samaria regional councils, the chairman and director of the Yesha Council, and Knesset Member Arieh Eldad (National Union), head of the Land of Israel Lobby in the Knesset.

A sign posted near the sukkah read, "Here live in a freeze the Elkin family members." The MK has been waiting to start building his permanent home in the community for the past 10 months.

"We gather here today both in honor of the Sukkot holiday and to discuss the end of the freeze," Elkin said at the start of the meeting. "This is a symbolic gathering place, in one of the frozen communities. Kfar Eldad has people who have been living in caravans for 20 years and have not been able to build their homes. This reality is about to end tonight, and life in Judea and Samaria will return to normal."

Elkin stated that "this struggle is far from over, as Kfar Eldad is an example of a community which requires the defense minister's signature in order to really end the freeze."

MK Eldad said, "We are here to remind everyone that Sukkot lasts only seven days, and then we'll resume the construction of permanent building %u2013 just like it should be. In this matter, there is nothing reminiscent of the Arabs more than the Jews, who build in the Land of Israel and convey the message that it is ours."

Yesha Council Chairman Danny Dayan asked to support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who he said would not agree to extend the building freeze beyond the preset date.

"Today 10 wasted and unnecessary months, which have caused a lot of suffering to many of us, come to an end. Those who thought the world would appreciate the decision to freeze the lives of the settlers in Judea and Samaria see our pressure now.

"A concession follows a concession and a gesture follows a gesture. Not only have we not moved forward, but we are moving backwards. The prime minister has done the right thing in rejecting these demands."

'Gradual renewal of construction'

Dayan expressed his hope that "rejecting the pressures will be accompanied by renewed construction in all of Judea and Samaria and tenders, so that the freeze will be lifted in practice as well."

He stressed the need to practice restraint. "This is not the time for celebrations. We will resume construction, not as a provocation, but because this is the role we assumed 40 years ago to settle all parts of the Land of Israel."

Gush Etzion Regional Council head Shaul Etzion clarified that the reality in the area he is in charge of would return to the reality before the freeze as of Monday.

"We are going back to normal construction. In any other place in the world, it would be unthinkable that a Jews who bought a land and presented all the required legal permits would not be allowed to build on his land."

Goldstein noted, however, that the construction would be resumed in a gradual manner. "There are people who have already signed a contract with a contractor and there are those who have not. So we will view the construction as a developing move and will not do it immediately.

"We understand the pressure Netanyahu is under, but this entire freeze has failed to achieve anything. There is no reason to stop building during negotiations with the Palestinians," he stated.

Barak tells BBC there's a '50-50' chance a compromise will be reached on settlements, says 'historic' peace process has better chance of success.

The Prime Minister's Office approached MK Danny Danon (Likud), who is planning an event to mark the expiration of the 10-month settlement freeze on Sunday, as well as settler council leaders, asking them to avoid provocations and maintain a low profile in the media.

The moratorium on Israeli construction in West Bank settlements, declared by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in November, was set to expire at midnight on Sunday. In the settlement of Revava, the countdown was set to begin Sunday afternoon: Thousands were expected to attend a rally with tractors, cement mixers and other equipment to broadcast to the world that construction in the territories was resuming.

Netanyahu's bureau also approached cabinet ministers requesting that they refrain from giving interviews on the topic. The Prime Minister's Office explained that the request meant to prevent inflammation of the delicate ongoing contacts between Israel, the U.S. and the Palestinian Authority surrounding the expiration of the freeze order.

Palestinian negotiators, among them Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, have declared repeatedly that they would abandon recently relaunched direct peace talks if Israel were to resume construction on land they envision for a future state. Netanyahu has said that he does not plan to extend the settlement freeze beyond its original 10-month timeframe.

If the sides fail to strike a compromise, the midnight end of the building restrictions could also mark the end of the peace talks launched at the White House less than a month ago.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the BBC, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that there was a "50-50 chance" that Israel and the Palestinians would reach a compromise on the issue of construction in the settlements.

Barak said that there was a much better chance that the current peace process would succeed, despite the disagreement over the settlements. "We cannot afford to let this [peace] process, with historic potential, to be derailed by the fact that Israel doesn't have a way to stop this construction totally," he said.

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israelis residing on an illegal West Bank outpost in the southern Hebron district began the foundations for a new religious school on Sunday to mark the end of Israel's 10-month moratorium on settlement construction.

The foundation laying ceremony in the Rommanim outpost follows several meetings hosted by the US with Israeli and Palestinian officials to save peace talks from collapse over settlement activity as the freeze expires.

In Hebron, settlers were seen at the entrances of Palestinian villages and town in the southern district, as well as the Old City, stopping several students from attending school in the older part of the city.

Meanwhile, in the southern Bethlehem district, Israelis residing on the illegal Noqedim settlement, were seen installing mobile homes on land belonging to the Palestinian Khirbet Jub Ath-Theib.

The move follows a breach of the freeze a day earlier by settlers who installed 20 caravans on a hilltop outside the Revava settlement in the northern West Bank.

On Saturday, President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel would have to chose between settlement activity and peace, as he addressed the UN General Assembly.

Abbas has repeatedly threatened to withdraw from talks if Israel does not commit to extending its partial freeze but Palestinian negotiators said they would announce their stance on 30 September on whether they will continue negotiations.

Meanwhile, the US has been mediating efforts to convince Israel to prolong the moratorium, despite announcing that construction would continue once the deadline expires.

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) decided to close down the Ibrahimi Mosque in Al-Khalil for two days before Muslim worshippers to celebrate Jewish holidays.

The director of Al-Khalil Waqf, Zeid Al-Jabari, said in a press release that the IOA informed the Waqf department of its intention to close down the mosque on Sunday and Monday.

The IOA closes down the holy site before Muslims on each Jewish holiday in accordance with recommendations by the Shamgar Commission that was formed by the IOA in the wake of the massacre in the Ibrahimi Mosque in which an armed Jewish settler killed 29 Palestinians while praying. http://fwd4.me/03eL

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Fatah's armed wing vowed to respond to renewed settlement expansion in the West Bank on Sunday.

The Al-Aqsa Brigades urged the Palestinian Authority to maintain its resolve to walk out of recently relaunched peace talks if full-scale settlement expansion resumed.

As the 10-month partial moratorium on settlement construction expired on Sunday, Israeli settlers laid the foundation for a new school in the illegal Rommanim outpost in the southern Hebron district. Near Bethlehem, Israelis residing on the illegal Noqedim settlement were seen installing mobile homes on land belonging to Palestinian Khirbet Jub Ath-Theib. On Saturday, settlers installed 20 caravans on a hilltop outside the Revava settlement in the northern West Bank.

In a statement, the brigades said settler attacks against Palestinian people and their land had gone too far without intervention. The resumption of settlement expansion, which the group noted had never actually stopped, was evidence of the Israeli government's intention to deny Palestinian rights, the brigades said.

The group cited the release of a settler security guard who shot dead two Palestinians on Wednesday as further proof that the Israeli government supported extremist right-wing settler groups. The killing of Samer Abu Sarhan, a 28-year-old father of five, in Silwan was one incident in an endless cycle of attacks against Palestinians and their land, the brigades said.

The military wing of the Fatah party said its fighters would teach settler groups "unforgettable lessons."

President Mahmoud Abbas told world leaders at the UN General Assembly on Saturday that Israel would have to choose between settlement expansion and peace.

Despite pressure from the UN, the EU and the US, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far refused to extend the freeze on settlement construction.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Violent clashes erupted Monday evening between Palestinians on one side and Israeli forces and extremist Jewish groups on the other side in the Batn al-Hawa neighborhood of Silwan, occupied Jerusalem, local sources said.

The clashes broke out after Jewish security agents residing in a neighborhood home they seized earlier known as the “Beit Yonatan" house harassed locals, the sources added.

Israeli soldiers ramped up their presence and closed off the district’s main street and tried to break up assembled neighborhood residents by firing a barrage of stun grenades, tear gas, and rubber-coated bullets.

Tensions grew throughout Silwan, as the situation became ripe for escalation in light of heavy military presence.

In other news, Israeli occupation forces arrested six Palestinians Tuesday morning in Ramallah during an incursion which began the previous night.

Israeli radio quoted military sources as saying the IOF troops arrested Palestinians suspected of involvement in attacks on Israeli targets.

IOF soldiers accompanied by trucks and bulldozers raided the same morning the Khalla Hajja region east of Beit Fajar, where there are a number of quarries. The area was tightly closed off. The soldiers carry out routine attacks on the area.

A number of Jewish settlers, working as security guards, opened fire on Saturday at night at a number of Palestinian homes in Al Sa'diyya neighborhood, in occupied East Jerusalem; no injuries were reported. A local woman was wounded in a separate attack.

The Israeli police arrived at the scene and closed the neighborhood preventing the residents from leaving their homes.

Furthermore, clashes were reported after a group of Palestinian youths took off to the streets and burnt tires. The Israeli Police claimed that a Molotov cocktail was also hurled at a settlers home in East Jerusalem.

In related news, a 35-year-old Palestinian woman was wounded while standing on her balcony in Al Esawiyya town in East Jerusalem.

The woman was hit in the head by a rubber-coated bullet fired by the army; her condition was described as mild-to-moderate. She was moved to Hadassah Israeli hospital in the city.

A Palestinian infant died on Friday after inhaling gas fired by the army in East Jerusalem. The 12-month-old infant was identified as Mohammad Abu Sneina.

"Israel is ready to pursue continuous contacts in the coming days to find a way to continue peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority," he said in a statement.

The Israeli leader has resisted calls from US President Barack Obama to extend the construction freeze but the United States has said it is trying to ensure both sides continued to negotiate despite Israel's decision.

Netanyahu, whose governing coalition is dominated by pro-settler parties, earlier urged Jewish settlers to show restraint before the freeze ended at midnight.

But settler leaders have said they will begin erecting next week some 2,000 homes in the West Bank.

Israel's ten-month partial freeze on settlement building came to an end with the launch of the construction of two thousand illegal houses across the West Bank.

At the settlement of Revava, near the city of Nablus, a mixer was used to pour cement to lay the foundation for a new building, hours before the midnight Sunday deadline when the moratorium was supposed to end, Reuters reported.

Extremist settlers marked the event with the tooting of horns and the release of thousands of balloons.

According to The Independent, Likud parliamentarian Danny Danon told the crowd, "Tonight, we place this miserable decision back into the dustbin of history."

The Israeli government's decision to suspend the partial freeze on settlement building comes in defiance of severe international pressure, including from the United States, to renew it.

Israel had halted settlement expansion during the freeze, but figures from Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics show that the number of homes built during the nearly 10-month moratorium declined by only about 10 percent.

In a statement issued after the suspension of the so-called settlement freeze, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "I call on President Abbas to continue with the good and honest talks we have just embarked upon, in an attempt to reach a historic peace agreement between our two peoples."

The 10-month construction moratorium imposed on West Bank settlements passed by the cabinet in November 2009 has officially expired. Efforts were made up until the last minute to find a political solution that will allow for the continuation of direct peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians. However, all such overtures have thus far been to no avail.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Haaretz newspaper said on Tuesday that the Israeli high court issued a decision allowing the right-wing institutions active in settlement construction to initiate procedures for the immediate displacement of tens of Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

The court declined a written objection filed by Palestinian citizens against an earlier decision regarding their ownership of a large piece of land in the western part of this neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem.

The court claimed that representatives of Israeli settlers and the administration of absentee property as well as other institutions have evidence that this piece of land is owned by settlers.

A source working for an Israeli settlement society said three Palestinian families will leave their homes in this neighborhood and dozens of Israeli families will be brought to live in them.

In separate incidents, mayor of Deir Estia village Nadhmi Salman said that more than 10 Israeli excavators started on Monday to expand Revava settlement near the village, west of Salfit city, in order to establish new housing units.

Meanwhile, dozens of Israeli settlers at dawn Tuesday stormed Joseph's tomb, east of Nablus city, and performed their rituals until the morning hours.

Local sources said that the settlers deliberately made loud noises and caused damage in a nearby school for girls, while Israeli soldiers were deployed in alleys and on rooftops.

Other Palestinian eyewitness reported that an Israeli settler driving his car on the main road connecting Nablus with Hawara area and Beita towns deliberately ran over a Palestinian young man before an Israeli military patrol came to the scene and took him to an unknown destination.

Israeli settlers resumed building across the West Bank on Monday after a partial freeze expired, but the Palestinians held back on threats to quit peace talks over the move.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas had repeatedly warned he would abandon US-backed negotiations with Israel should the Jewish state continue building on occupied Palestinian land.

But despite weeks of international pressure, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made no move to extend the moratorium on new settler homes in the occupied West Bank, which formally ended at midnight (2200 GMT Sunday).

As bulldozers across the West Bank lumbered into action on Monday, Abbas told reporters in Paris he would not rush to respond to Israel's refusal to extend the freeze, but would first consult Palestinian and Arab leaders.

He was to discuss the move with his Fatah movement and the Palestine Liberation Organisation this week and meet with Arab foreign ministers on October 4.

"After all these meetings we may be able to issue a position to clarify what is the Palestinian and Arab opinion on this matter," Abbas said.

Netanyahu has urged the Palestinian leader to stick with the talks, which were launched on September 2 after a 20-month hiatus.

Settlement construction was under way at Yitzhar and Ariel in the northern West Bank, Adam north of Jerusalem, and Kohav HaShahar and Shaar Benyamin near the West Bank town of Ramallah.

In a flashpoint settlement in the heart of the southern West Bank city of Hebron about 15,000 Israelis gathered in a carnival-like setting, though most were ultra-Orthodox celebrating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

"Today we are one day after the freeze, a move I always opposed and said was a bad idea," Silvan Shalom, a minister from Netanyahu's Likud party, told the crowd.

"I said that 10 months was too much. One day was too much," he said.

There were no reports of any major construction taking place, in part because of Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles, during which Jews are not supposed to work.

And as a result of the blanket closure imposed on the West Bank until the holiday ends on Thursday night, Palestinian construction workers -- thousands of whom earn a living by building settlements -- will not be able to return to work until October 3, after the weekend.

A wide-scale resumption of settlement construction would almost certainly force Abbas to quit the talks, but Israel is hoping he will tolerate low-key building.

Washington is still pressing for a compromise to save the talks, and State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said there would be further meetings in the "coming days."

But he praised Abbas for not not immediately backing out of the talks.

"The restraint is appreciated," Crowley told reporters, adding: "We'll be in touch with the Israelis this week."

Meanwhile the Islamist Hamas movement that rules Gaza called on Abbas to stand by his threat to end the negotiations.

"I call on my brothers at the Palestinian Authority, who had stated they would not pursue talks with the enemy (Israel) if it continued settlement construction, to hold to their promise," its exiled chief Khaled Meshaal said.

"To negotiate without a position of strength is absurd," he stressed from Damascus.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who held talks with Abbas in Paris, sharply criticised the Israeli decision.

"We regret that the unanimous calls for the moratorium on Israeli settlement building to be extended were not listened to. I deplore this," Sarkozy told joint news conference with Abbas.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also expressed disappointment with Israel's decision and concern at what he called "provocative actions taking place on the ground," his spokesman said.

Just before the freeze ended, Netanyahu urged settlers to display "restraint and responsibility," and settler leaders said they would avoid provocations.

"We hope it is really over and not just a trick... We are very suspicious, but we hope that we can still build and build big, like we used to."

The Palestinians have long deplored the presence of 500,000 Israelis in more than 120 settlements scattered across the West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem, lands expected to form the bulk of a future Palestinian state.

Jewish settlers in Hebron mark end of settlement freeze by holding groundbreaking ceremony; move largely symbolic, project undertaken without official approval. Community leaders: Government must live up to its duties.

Orit Struck

While the Jewish settlement in the West Bank city of Hebron is gearing for the traditional water-drawing festival at the Cave of Patriarchs, Hebron settlers have made the opening move in their play to reclaim the previously evicted area of the wholesaler market.

A dedication ceremony for a new kindergarten was held Monday afternoon, among the abandoned buildings of the market. Hundreds of right-wing activists attended the ceremony, including Deputy Education Minister Meir Porush.

The groundbreaking ceremony was a symbolic move, not officially sanctioned by the Israeli authorities.

"There is an important political lesson here for us to learn," he said. "We must learn from the Arabs how to stand firm and not waive political demands. Had we acted this way, our political situation and position in negotiations would have been better."

Deputy Minister Meir Porush

Addressing the resumption of settlement construction, he added: "I've seen children whose only sin was being born Jewish in Hebron and are therefore forced to crowd together in kindergartens inside basements with no windows or any garden."

Hebron settlers have tried to claim the area twice before: The first time, in 2001, followed the murder of toddler Shalhevet Pas by a Palestinian sniper; and the second in 2007. Both attempts ended with their forceful evacuation.

"The State should allow us to build another kindergarten here, given how crowded our other ones are," said Orit Struck, one of the Hebron community's outspoken leaders. "These children are living here because of previous government decisions."

Struck added that she was in possession of a petition, signed by 44 Knesset Member including 14 Kadima MKs supporting the move. Still, the Jewish community of the West Bank city admitted the move was largely symbolic and "meant to awaken the government and prompt it to uphold its duties towards the city of Hebron, as stipulated in both international agreements and government decisions."

Meanwhile, the West Bank settlement of Dolev, northwest of Ramallah, announced it will name a new street after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Construction of the street will begin Tuesday following the end on the settlement freeze.

"We have decided to honor the prime minister, who did not cave in to international pressure," a Dolev resident said.

Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday urged Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas not to abandon peace talks as Jewish settlers started building again after the expiry of a 10-month freeze.

Just minutes after the end of the moratorium on new building in the West Bank, which formally expired at midnight, the Israeli premier issued an appeal to Abbas to stick with the peace talks, which were launched earlier this month.

"I call on president Abbas to continue with the good and honest talks we have just embarked upon, in an attempt to reach a historic peace agreement between our two peoples," he said in a bid to prevent the Palestinian leader from walking away from the negotiations.

Abbas, who is in Paris, immediately responded, urging Netanyahu to extend the freeze in order to save the talks, his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said.

"Netanyahu must take a decision to freeze the settlements in order to create an appropriate atmosphere to proceed with the peace talks," he told AFP.

Shortly after sunrise, bulldozers and other heavy machinery lumbered into action at a handful of small settlements across the West Bank, albeit on a modest scale, Israeli media outlets reported.

Earthmovers were spotted hard at work in the settlement of Adam, north of Jerusalem, where around 30 homes are due to be built, public radio said.

Construction was also due to start in at least eight other small settlements, including in the flashpoint enclave of Kiryat Arba, where 600 extreme rightwing settlers live in the heart of the southern city of Hebron, Israel's private Channel 2 television said.

The expiry of the moratorium means that anyone who obtained a permit to build prior to the moratorium can now go ahead and start working.

Building work at this stage is likely to be limited to isolated settlements where several hundred housing units are due to be built in the coming months, media reports suggest.

It is also likely to start on a limited scale because of the ongoing Jewish festival of Succot, which ends at sundown on Thursday.

A wide-scale resumption of settlement construction would almost certainly force Abbas to quit talks, but Israel is hoping that he would tolerate low-key construction.

Washington is also keeping up pressure on Netanyahu to reimpose the settlement freeze, with a State Department spokesman saying efforts to that end would continue.

"We remain in close touch with both parties and will be meeting with them again in the coming days," said PJ Crowley.

"We keep pushing for the talks to continue," he said, pointing out that US peace envoy George Mitchell had held talks with Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who is in New York, and that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had spoken with Netanyahu.

Just before the freeze ended, Netanyahu urged the settlers to keep a low profile as they start building again, and called on them to display "restraint and responsibility" -- in a move acknowledged by settler leaders.

"We are getting back to business as usual and building but we will respect the prime minister's request," said David Ha'ivri, head of the Samaria regional council.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, settler sources told AFP they had been given the nod from the premier's office to start building -- but on condition they "don't make a big deal of it."

As debate raged over the end of the settlement freeze, events on the ground late Sunday turned violent when gunmen opened fire on an Israeli vehicle in the southern West Bank, lightly wounding a man and his pregnant wife, the military said.

The attack happened south of Hebron, not far from the site of a similar shooting earlier in the month which left four Israelis dead, and which was claimed by the radical Hamas movement.

Jewish settlement on occupied Palestinian land is one of the most bitter aspects of the conflict. Currently, around 500,000 Israelis live in more than 120 settlements across the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories the Palestinians want for their promised state.

A previous round of direct talks collapsed in December 2008 when Israel launched a war on the Gaza Strip aimed at halting rocket attacks.

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- Zionist settlers started on Sunday to bulldoze Palestinian land near the village of Yatta, south of Al-Khalil, in preparation to re-establish the settlement of Havat Ma'on.

Local sources said that the settlers, protected by Israeli occupation forces (IOF), installed caravans in the area in preparation for re-establishing the settlement, which was dismantled around nine years ago after eruption of the Aqsa intifada.

Meanwhile, other settlers bulldozed land in Al-Khalil's Wadi Al-Hussain in preparation for erecting a new settlement outpost.

Tens of IOF soldiers were deployed in the vicinity to protect the settlers.

Also in Al-Khalil, dozens of settlers stormed downtown to perform Talmudic rituals as IOF troops in coordination with the PA militias loyal to de facto president Mahmoud Abbas closed roads leading to the area.

IOF soldiers also detained a 13-year-old pupil from his school classroom in Al-Khalil despite suffering a fractured foot. He was taken to the Ofer detention center.

The killer told the Israeli police that the incident had occurred when he was trying to defend himself from a planned ambush. He claimed that the street in Wadi Hilweh where he was driving was blocked by garbage containers, and that after stopping, his Jeep did not start. He claimed that after he stepped out of the vehicle, Palestinian residents began throwing stones at him - according to the claims and that he had to shoot to defend himself. As a result Samer Sarhan was killed.

However, the video camera which was unveiled by Wadi Hilweh Information Center clearly shows that the street was not blocked and that the killer had fled in his vehicle immediately after the shooting.

It should be noted that the Israeli police accepted the shooter's version and released him to his home less than 24 hours following the incident. This leads the residents of Silwan to fear that the settlement guards have complete freedom to use their weapons as they deem fit.

Silwan residents often complain about the conduct of the settlement guards. For example, on June 2nd, settlers guards tried to disperse demonstrators despite the presence of Israeli police at the scene, wounding one of the mosque personnel, Ayoub Mazen Auda, in the leg, and attacked a photographer of Silwanic, Ahmed Siyam. To our knowledge, the guards were not arrested or tried for their assault.

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Settler leaders told the Israeli press on Monday that a Sunday court ruling had opened the door for further evictions of Palestinain families in Sheikh Jarrah.

Jerusalem settler leader Aryeh King told the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz that before the week's end, three Palestinian families would be evicted from their homes and replaced with Jewish settlers.

The announcement follows the rejection of an eviction appeal by displaced Palestinian families in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah was by an Israeli High Court judge on Sunday.

The ruling, reported by the Israeli daily news site Haaretz on Tuesday, said that settler groups which had pushed several families out of their homes had succeeded in proving they owned the property.

According to analysts, the ruling may give future license to settler groups to move into dozens more Palestinian homes in the occupied neighborhood, and opens the door for proceedings Palestinian officials say are based on false documents.

Following the ruling, however, Haaretz reported, "settlers will be able to move ahead with plans to build in the area."

With an end to the settlement construction moratorium in the West Bank putting peace talks in jeopardy, the announcement of new settler projects displacing Palestinian families in Jerusalem would heighten tension in the city, and further imperil the peace process.

PA official: No special treatment for settlers

NABLUS (Ma'an) -- A Palestinian Authority official denied Tuesday that Israeli settlers had been granted permission to restore Joseph's Tomb in the northern West Bank district of Nablus, saying only the PA would be allowed to undertake the work.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said reports in Israeli media that Israeli settlers would be entering the shrine for restoration works aimed at "blackmailing" the PA and to "impose a situation where settlers achieve their goals."

The tomb, he said, was under PA control and that access to the area is granted with prior arrangement with the PA.

In mid-September settler community leaders announced that a rally would be held demanding "open access" to the Nablus area, and in particular Joseph's Tomb.

Following violence precipitated by settler visits to the site - which saw Palestinian areas closed down or put under curfew - the area was closed off to settlers in early 2000.

A statement from the Shomeron Regional Council Office, representing settler groups in the West Bank, said the ban was "Contrary to the Oslo agreement that provides access to all holy places."

The settler rally will reportedly take place on Mount Gerizim, home to the Samaritan community, most of whom attend school and work inside the Palestinian city of Nablus. They hold both Israeli and Palestinian passports.

The rally will celebrate the construction of a new fence around the tomb, as well as repair work to the roof, damaged during fighting in the first months of the Second Intifada.

According to the statement, however, settlers were concerned "that the repairs would be done by Arab work teams and that would be seen as reward to those who were responsibility for the original vandalism."

a Palestinian woman looking on as Israeli settlers step out from her occupied house in the East al-Quds neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

Dozens of Palestinian families face eviction after an Israeli court gave settlers the green light to push ahead with plans to build in East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

The Israeli Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Palestinians claiming to own a large plot in the western portion of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, where Israeli settlers have forcefully taken over several Palestinian homes, the Ha'aretz reported on its website on Tuesday.

The court ruled that the custodian general, and other owners, including settler representatives, succeeded in proving they owned the property.

This would mean the eviction of dozens of Palestinian families living on the property.

Aryeh King, one of the leaders of the settlement movement in East al-Quds said on Monday that three Palestinian families would be evicted from their homes and replaced by Israeli settlers in two days. He also said plans were underway to build dozens of settlement units for Jews in the neighborhood.

Palestinians filed a lawsuit in 1997, arguing that the property on which Jews settled following the Six-Day War of 1967 had not been sold to them but leased and that the ownership remained Palestinian. In 2006, the al-Quds District Court rejected the suit and they appealed to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court rejected their appeal on Sunday and ruled that the Palestinians failed to prove the terms of the lease between the original owners and the Jews who lived in the neighborhood. It also rejected evidence that payments had been made for the lease proved the Jews had not bought the property.

The ruling is significant as the status of the Palestinians living in the eastern portion of the neighborhood is now the same as that of those living in the western side.

Sources familiar with the issue say that now it will be easier for settler groups to evict Palestinians from their homes in the area.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Groups of Zionist settlers entered the holy Aqsa Mosque on Wednesday and roamed its plazas under police escort, guards of the holy site said.

They added that the settlers entered from the Maghareba gate that has been under the full control of the Israeli occupation authority since the occupation of Jerusalem in 1967.

The guards said that the settlers entered the Aqsa compound in small groups escorted by police and security forces, noting that the step was made in the wake of calls by Zionist fanatic groups on the eve of the Jewish feasts to storm the Aqsa and perform Talmudic rituals there.

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Scores of Israeli settlers entered and toured the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem's Old City on Wednesday, as Jews marked the end of the religious holiday of Sukkot.

A guard at the mosque compound told Ma'an that approximately 95 Israelis entered the holy site, escorted by Israeli forces, and toured the compound's courtyard.

On Tuesday, Tareq Abu Subieh, a guard at the mosque compound, was detained for attempting to prevent 75 settlers from entering the site, where many Jews believe the First and Second Temple were located.

Abu Subieh said he received a restriction order barring him from entering the compound for two weeks.

A spokesman for Israel's National Police did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

Israeli settlers have been launching attacks against mosques in the villages of the southern Nablus countryside burning down two of them this year alone.

Jewish settlers have distributed posters calling for the destruction of a mosque in the village of Bourin to the south of Nablus city in the occupied West Bank.

On Thursday (30.09.2010), Ghassan Daghlas, an official responsible for settlements in the northern West Bank, said that settlers put up posters and wrote inflammatory slogans calling for the destruction of the mosque. He clarified that the settlers placed these posters at a crossroad situated in the middle of the residential district in the village, which is subjected to attacks by settlers on an almost daily basis.

It is noteworthy that the issue of this particular mosque is pending in the Zionist courts as the Israeli occupation had previously decided to destroy it. Israeli settlers have been launching attacks against mosques in the villages of the southern Nablus countryside burning down two of them this year alone; in the villages of Yasouf and al-Laban in the east, while they scrawled racist graffiti on a third in the village of Hawara.

NABLUS, (PIC)-- Zionist settlers in the Nablus district have distributed pamphlets calling for the demolition of a mosque in Burin village, south of Nablus city.

Ghassan Daghlas, who heads a committee following up the Zionist settlement activity in northern West Bank, said on Thursday that the settlers, believed to be from more than one settlement, were gluing posters and writing provocative slogans calling for razing the mosque.

He explained that the Israeli occupation authority had previously decided to level it but the case was taken to court and still is not decided.

Settlers in Nablus rural areas burnt two mosques in Yasuf and Laban Al-Sharqiya villages this year and inscribed racist remarks on a third in Hawara village.

Meanwhile, a report published by Hebrew daily Haaretz on Thursday indicated that 13% of the Israeli military live in West Bank settlements and most of them live in a settlement south of Nablus city.

QALQILIYA (Ma'an) -- A Nablus father said he was injured on Thursday night when a settler driving through the West Bank ran him over and fled the scene.

Mahmud Muhammad Al-Hajj Jum'a, 32, said he was standing near the main road east of Qalqiliya waiting near the area's Israeli Dostrict Coordination Office for a taxi to take him home to Nablus when an Israeli-plated car careened toward him, and struck his legs and hips.

Jum'a said he was able to call for medical assistance, and was taken to the Darwish Nazzal hospital in Qalqiliya, where medics said he was moderately injured.

Tensions between settlers and Palestinians remain high, as groups in the West Bank celebrated the end of a settlement construction freeze, by laying the foundations of dozens of new homes on land Palestinians hope will be part of their state.